U.S. Government Shutdown Continues; Debt Ceiling Looms for U.S. Economy; U.S. and Afghanistan Governments Near Deal Regarding U.S. Troops; Lost in the Wilderness; New Jersey Senate Race Heats Up

Aired October 14, 2013 - 07:00 ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And we have a remarkable story of survival. A hunter found over the weekend after he was missing for 19 days in the wilderness. Wait until you hear how he managed to survive. We'll have a live report just ahead.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: But first, it is now day 14, I cannot believe it, of the partial government shutdown. Now the debt ceiling is looming just three days away. We have a clock on your screen so you can watch it. Why? Because the world economy is watching and a lot of people say bad things may happen. A key question this morning is, can the Senate come up with a deal so everybody at least leave feel they got something in the negotiation. Let's check in with CNN Jim Acosta live at the White House this morning. Good morning, Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris. In a sign of how desperate things are becoming here in Washington, the only movement is a phone call between the Senate's top two leaders, who haven't always gotten along but need to work together to avert a crisis.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: With the clock ticking down to debt ceiling day, it's come down to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell who have started horse trading over a deal to reopen the government avoid default.

HARRY REID, (D-NV) SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: I had a productive conversation with the Republican loader this afternoon. Our discussions were substantive, and we will continue those discussions.

ACOSTA: The question is whether they can get there in time.

SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER, (D) NEW YORK: Both leaders realize how difficult default would be, the devastation it would cause to America.

ACOSTA: But talks over the weekend appeared to stumble again as Republicans accuse Reid of overreaching by seeking additional concessions from Republicans over those forced budget cuts in the sequester.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) ARIZONA: Now is the time to be magnanimous and sit down and get this thing done. ACOSTA: The White House said President Obama was standing firm in a call with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, that there must be clean bills to extend the debt ceiling and end the shutdown with no strings attached. Tensions are boiling over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the people's memorial.

ACOSTA: Texas Senator Ted Cruz led a protest over the closing of the World War II memorial on the national mall that drew this verbal attack on the White House.

LARRY KLAYMAN, FOUNDER, FREEDOM WATCH: I call upon all of you to wage a second American non-violent revolution, to use civil disobedience, and to demand that this president leave town, to get up, to put the -- to put the Koran down, to get up off his knows, and to figuratively come up with his hands out.

CROWD: USA! USA!

ACOSTA: Veterans and tea party Tea Party activists grabbed monument security barricades and dumped them in front of the White House before a rowdy faceoff with park police in riot agreement. One man waved the Confederate flag. Others called for impeachment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They gave them back to President Obama by filing them up in front of his house, our house, I'm sorry, our house.

ACOSTA: While another Tea Party backed senator was calling for compromise.

SEN. RAND PAUL, (R) KENTUCKY: I think it's not a good idea to go through the debt ceiling dead loin. I think we should go ahead and have an agreement in advance.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Now the only deal that has been struck in the last several days is between the federal government and a variety of state governments to reopen some of the national parks around the country. But as for things here at the White House, they are back to normal. They're calm after all that commotion yesterday and the Senate we should note is back in session later today. But, Kate, it may take a dramatic drop in the stock market to really wake people up here in Washington. They are nowhere near an agreement at this point.

BOLDUAN: Unfortunately, it seems that's what economists fear all along, that it will take a dramatic action to get the act together. We'll see. Jim, thank you so much.

Let's talk more about all this, what happens if Washington allows the country to hit the debt ceiling. Joining us is CNN global economic analyst and "TIME" magazine assistant managing editor Rana Foroohar. Rana, here we go again.

RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST: Here we go again. BOLDUAN: Exactly. So we ended last week on a pretty high note. Stocks really rallying and surging Thursday-Friday with whispers of a deal. A breakdown over the weekend. What are you seeing? What are you expecting today?

FOROOHAR: I'm expecting the markets to be jittery. You've already seen stock futures down. And this is what's happened in the past. We go back to August of 2011 when we were in the same position. Stocks went up and down on every whisper of a deal. Eventually, when things came to crunch time and there was a downgrade, stocks dropped 13 percent. So that's worth remembering. We could be in for a drop as we get close to the date.

BOLDUAN: And over the weekend the pressure is mounting on Washington, IMF, World Bank meetings over the weekend, talking about massive financial consequences, massive disruption the world over. We've talked a lot about kind of the rip effects through our economy, which are very important, but what are the ripple effects worldwide that people need to remember?

FOROOHAR: So the thing that's important is the dollar is the world's reserve currency. This is what most of the world's business is done in. It's what most central banks around the world hold aside from their own currency in case of an emergency. So if the value of our dollar starts to drop, if people think we're not good for our word and our money, that really could start an international financial crisis.

BOLDUAN: Which can't be overstated?

FOROOHAR: No, it really can't be. I want to say this is not going to happen all at once on Thursday.

BOLDUAN: That's an important part.

FOROOHAR: If we go over the limit, because there is a cushion in the treasury. We don't know quite how long it would last. It's not an exact science. Within about a week we'll probably have enough money to cover bills. After that it starts to get iffy.

BOLDUAN: Do you think the markets will start reacting?

FOROOHAR: I do.

BOLDUAN: You can see the writing on the wall the government will run out of money if pay for its bills.

FOROOHAR: I do. I think by Thursday you will see very jittery markets, and certainly by about the 25th, which is when most economists are projecting those funds have been depleted I think we can be in a really bad position.

BOLDUAN: Where is the smart money today? Is there any confidence folks are thinking Washington is Washington and brinksmanship will be just that, they will get their act together? Is there any confidence?

FOROOHAR: Rather than confidence, I would actually say disbelief. Wall Street can never believe that Washington is in this position. You know, they keep crossing their fingers and hoping. That's why I think you haven't seen a real market plummet. There is always the sense, we'll get to the 11th hour and things will be OK. But if we don't get there, I think you can see a strong market reaction.

BOLDUAN: Last week they were talking business leaders, CEOs coming up and saying just that, even if it is an unknown and there is no precedent for it, don't test this out.

FOROOHAR: Absolutely.

BOLDUAN: Any signs that that's had an impact?

FOROOHAR: I don't think so, because I really do think that Wall Street and the business community increasingly operate in a different sphere than Washington, which is fascinating, because the Republican Party is really no longer the party of business in that sense. A lot of the agenda of business leaders is much more a left leaning agenda. They want investment. They want Washington to get its act together. They want a stable currency. They want us to really be coming together around these issues rather than worrying about the deficit, which frankly will be increasing as well. It's not even our biggest economic problem.

BOLDUAN: Please don't say that. Miracles happen in Washington when there is a deadline. Let's hope that a miracle happen this time, I guess. Rana, thank you so much. We will continue talking about it, it looks like.

CUOMO: I want to move overseas now, because there was another green on blue attack to tell you about in Afghanistan. A man dressed in an Afghan army uniform opened up fire on NATO security forces. Barbara Starr joins us live from the Pentagon with the latest. What do we know, Barbara?

BARBRA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris. This happened yesterday in eastern Afghanistan. Someone in an Afghan uniform shot and killed a NATO service member. The nationality of that person not yet identified, but we do know that most of the troops in eastern Afghanistan from NATO are American, so an investigation under way into this latest tragedy.

Now, not directly related, but this comes a day after secretary of state John Kerry and Afghan President Hamid Karzai apparently agreed on major issues that would allow U.S. troops to stay in Afghanistan along with NATO, they agree, after 2014 when that deadline is up. This has been a big point of controversy for the U.S. and Afghanistan to work out the details. But one big sticking point, immunity for U.S. troops, if they get into some dispute with the Afghan government, that they will immunity. That is very standard procedure. It's happened in every country. The Afghan government so far not agreeing, and if they don't agree to immunity, very doubtful that U.S. troops indeed would stay. Chris, Kate?

CUOMO: It's been a problem that has plagued the situation, Barbara. Thank you very much for the latest reporting, appreciate it. BOLDUAN: Don Lemon is in for Michaela this morning with more of the headlines.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone out there. The International Red Cross demanding seven humanitarian aid workers be let go unconditionally. The team was trying to deliver medical supplies in northwestern Syria when unidentified men reportedly kidnapped them. This happened in the same province where a car bomb exploded today, killing at least 20 people.

Top Iranian negotiators plan to offer a new proposal assuring that the country's nuclear program is a peaceful one. New negotiations between Iran and the five permanent U.N. Security Council members are planned for tomorrow and Wednesday in Geneva. Iran's deputy foreign minister says his team will present a three-step plan securing Iran's civilian nuclear program while also assuring the country is not trying to assemble atomic weapons.

And this is just in to CNN this morning. A Nobel Prize, I should say, for economics awarded to three American professors, Eugene Fama and Lars Peter Hanson of the University of Chicago and Robert Schiller of Yale University honored for their empirical analysis of asset prices. Congratulations to them.

A plastic bottle explosion stymied travelers at Los Angeles International Airport overnight. Authorities say a plastic bottle packed with dry ice apparently exploded. No one was injured but the incident delayed handful of flights, and the terminal was evacuated for a short period. All is back to normal right now.

And the Wallendas, they can add another walk to their highlight reel now. I can't believe they do this. Nik and his sister Lijana performed at the Charlotte motor speedway 150 feet above the track. They started on the opposite end of a 460 wire, met in the middle, and they kept going. Look at that. The crossover, the handover, the second consecutive year Nik walked the speedway but the first time his sister did it. Look at that.

BOLDUAN: It is amazing.

LEMON: I can barely walk up the stairs without tripping.

CUOMO: You know what you have here. Kate Baldwin did the Wallenda training.

LEMON: That's right, you did.

BOLDUAN: I was screaming like a little girl.

LEMON: You were like squirrel on a power line.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: Very good.

LEMON: Just love in this room. BOLDUAN: It is amazing. The only perspective you need is trying to stand on the wire for second. It moves. It's supposed to move. And it's so amazing.

LEMON: There is a method to his madness. I watched his feet the shoes he wears.

BOLDUAN: He also slides his feet. It's his process. He does it at uneven intervals because you don't want to create a bounce in the wire.

LEMON: You don't want to look down? He looks down the whole time.

BOLDUAN: He locked down over the grand canyon.

CUOMO: He uses that balance stick.

BOLDUAN: I was like, I got this.

CUOMO: Survival hut.

BOLDUAN: Survival. Let's go over to Karen Maginnis once again in for Indra Peterson keeping track of the latest forecast. How is it going?

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We have a weak system that is expected to move across the northeast, rather. As it does, those temperatures will go down a little bit. But then the warm front will start to swing in on the back side of this, so those temperatures warm up again as we go towards the middle of the workweek.

But then an even stronger system is going to really pack quite a punch on the backside of this, snowfall, down to around 10,000 feet or up to 10,000 feet. You could see up to a foot of snowfall. Temperature- wise, we are looking at 52 in New York, Buffalo is reporting 54, Syracuse at 57.

Now this morning, you heard us talk about all that wet weather across Texas, flooding rains an Austin. I want to show you some pictures coming out of the area around Austin. This is a commercial bus. It overturned. It was on a flooded street there just to the southwest of Austin in Ross County, or Hayes County. They were saying a wedding party was in this bus, but it tipped over and those flooding rain, it goes to show you, you just cannot estimate, it may be a little bit of water, a whole lot in this situation, they saw as much as 12 inches of rainfall there. No one injured in that accident, so that's the good news, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Sure is. Thanks so much, Karen.

CUOMO: Coming up on NEW DAY after the break, we will check in on this race going on in New Jersey. That's Cory Booker. He was supposed to be a shoe-in for Senate. What happened, the opponent gaining ground as a former Alaska governor is in his corner. We will give you details coming up.

BOLDUAN: And a 72-year-old hunter lost in the wilderness for 19 days, how he stayed alive long after search teams have given up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Welcome back to NEW DAY. A question, how long do you think you could make it alone in the woods? A day, a week? Family and friends thought they would never see 72-year-old hunter Gene Penaflor again. Why? He disappeared on a hunting trip. After four days, the search ended. Over the weekend he was found alive after 19 days. How did he do it? Miguel Marquez joins us live here in the NEW DAY studio with this amazing story. Great to have you here.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you.

CUOMO: How did he do it, my friend?

MARQUEZ: This is absolutely amazing, this is a guys who is out there with a friend, he bumps his head, wakes up disoriented. This is a beautiful part of California, but it can be unforgiving. He can't figure out where he is. He is literally in a deep fog in that part of California. He literally has to eat anything that moves.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: Nineteen days lost in the wilderness, injured and dehydrated this 72-year-old man survived.

GENE PENAFLOR, SURVIVED 19 DAYS IN THE WILDERNESS: I didn't panic, because panic will kill me right away. I knew that.

MARQUEZ: Gene Penaflor vanished in the Mendocino National Forest in northern California. He was on a hunting trip, got separated from his partner and suffered a serious fall.

PENAFLOR: In the process, I falling straight down. I kneecap was broken, after that, all that went dead. I pass out, I don't know how long.

MARQUEZ: When he finally woke up, he was disoriented, suffering a head injury. He was stranded in the middle of nowhere, forced to eat lizards, frogs, and squirrels just to stay alive.

PENAFLOR: The process for days, three squirrels were dead because of me.

MARQUEZ: He scavenged water from a draining source. He huddled under logs to stay out of the snow and rain and kept warm making fires using leaves and grass, meanwhile, his family spent every single one of those 19 days praying he was still out there still alive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 19 days I knew was nothing for him. I knew he was there.

MARQUEZ: Rescue teams were searching for him for weeks. He was found on Saturday by a group of hunters at the bottom of a ravine. By then, Penaflor could no longer walk on his own; he had to be carried on a make-shift stretcher. Thankfully, miraculously, he is okay. (END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: What a tough, tough guy. Absolutely amazing. This is a guy who is lucky to be alive. He did not think he was going to live, but he held on for that one lucky break. Those hunters close enough they could hear him yelping for help.

CUOMO: He had to have that vital combination the head to tell him how to do it and the heart.

MARQUEZ: Most of this was heart. Guy was getting extremely weak out there.

CUOMO: We were talking, he had a gun. He couldn't use it well because of his injuries.

MARQUEZ: He couldn't get around to catch the stuff in the area. He could only get the stuff in his immediate area.

CUOMO: Thank you very much for bringing us the story. It's great to have you here on set.

So, we're going to go from one horrible story of survival to a different type of brutal race for survival known as politics. Isn't that right, Kate?

BOLDUAN: Very good point. Thanks, Chris. Things are heating up in the race for the New Jersey Senate. Popular Newark Mayor Cory Booker may have a double-digit lead, but he's watched that lead shrink over the last few months. Now in the closing days of the race, his much lower profile Republican opponent getting serious GOP star power to back him up. "EARLY START" anchor, John Berman joining us now with more. What's going on with this race?

JOHN BERMAN, ANCHOR, EARLY START: We didn't know we were at election day. Yeah, it's coming up Wednesday, a special election for a Senate seat in New Jersey, it really has become an all star affair. It hasn't played out exactly the way everyone thought.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: With political celebrity and Twitter junkie Cory Booker on the ballot, the race for Senate in New Jersey has been high profile from the start. Now his opponent is bringing his own star power to the campaign. Just days away from the election, Tea Party favorite Sarah Palin headlined a rally for Republican candidate Steve Lonegan over the weekend.

SARAH PALIN, FORMER VICE RPESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You have the momentum with Steve's campaign. The rest of the country knows it, the media even knows it, and that's why they're getting all wee wee'd up against Steve.

BERMAN: Palin seemed to be responding to the controversy surrounding Lonegan after one of his top advisers ridiculed Mayor Booker for having a Twitter exchange with a stripper saying, quote, "I don't know, it was like what a gay guy would say to a stripper."

STEVE LONEGAN, (R ) NEW JERSEY SENATE CANDIDATE: I can't be responsible for what all they say. But I will take responsibility, so I terminated the gentleman for his inappropriate comments.

BERMAN: Booker says his opponent's conservative backing does not represent main stream Republicans.

MAYOR CORY BOOKER, NEWARK, NEW JERSEY: Sarah Palin, Rick Perry, Rand Paul, all the people he has been affiliating with himself don't represent the main stream of the Republican party, they represent the far right Tea Party. So that's who he is.

BERMAN: With over 1.4 million followers on Twitter, Newark's mayor has been all over the local news for years with tales of saving abandoned dogs and rescuing his neighbor from her burning home.

BOOKER: I just didn't think, I grabbed her and ran.

BERMAN: For months, Booker has had a double digit lead over Lonegan, but that lead is shrinking, dipping to 12 points according to a poll released last week. That is thanks in part to his opponent's aggressive ad campaign.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cory Booker, radical, liberal, extreme.

KRISTA JENKINS, POLITICAL ANALYST: There really hasn't been a lot of issue-based discussion, it's been much more about personality and the kind of things that often leave voters in the dark about who it is they are voting for.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: We should say Cory Booker returned to the campaign trail this weekend. He had taken a few days off after the death of his father last week. We also mentioned, Kate, this race does appear to be tightening. Still the polls show it at a 12-point margin for Booker. That's a substantial gap. If you win by 12 points, that's a big win.

BOLDUAN: Not enough time left to make up ground. Exactly. Thanks, John.

Let us know what you think of this whole thing, this race, generally your thoughts. Give us your thoughts. Make sure you tweet with the hashtag #NEWDAY. Chris?

CUOMO: All right, we'll take a little break here on NEW DAY. When we come back, you remember Madeleine McCann the little girl who disappeared in Portugal six years ago. Her parents asking the world for help. Guess what? There is new evidence, say investigators. New sketches of a possible suspect. We'll show you after the break.

And one moment, a Florida woman walking for a good cause, the next, dangling from a draw bridge. Her dramatic rescue when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BOLDUAN: Welcome back to NEW DAY, everyone. It is Monday, October 14.

Coming up in the show, new leads six years after the disappearance of a 3-year-old British girl. So what really happened to little Madeleine McCann? Are they any closer to answering that question?

CUOMO: And what an ordeal to tell you about down in Florida. This woman, she right there is on a draw bridge that opened while she was on it. How did she get there? How did she survive? We'll tell you the whole story. First, Don Lemon is in with us this morning, in for Michaela. He has the headlines.

LEMON: A lot of headlines.

Good morning, to both of you, and good morning everyone. It is day 14 of the partial government shutdown and with the debt ceiling looming, Senate leaders are talking, but no deal in sight. Hope for a resolution rests with Senators Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell, two leaders who often don't agree on much, but Reed said in closing remarks on the Senate floor, that he's optimistic about prospects of a resolution.

The NATO-led international security force investigating another green on blue attack in Afghanistan. A gunman wearing an Afghan soldier's uniform shooting killing a NATO service member Sunday is the latest of a series of insider attacks by Afghan troops or infiltrators of U.S. and allied troops. One back in September killed three Americans.

An Amber Alert for nine missing teenagers in New Mexico has been called off this morning, all nine of them attend a ranch for troubled kids, and when police received allegations of abuse last week, they tried to find the teens, but couldn't locate them. An attorney for the Tiara Blanca Ranch says all of them are safe with their families after taking a group trip.

A very close call for a group of tourists in east China, dozens of them, look at this, plunging into a lake when their footbridge collapsed. Eighteen people required medical attention, but no one seriously hurt. Authorities say the bridge was built to hold up to 40 people at a time, but more than 100 tourists tried to rush across and it collapsed under their weight. My goodness.

Madonna, no longer welcome at a movie theater chain until she apologizes for texting during a movie. During the premiere of "12 Years a Slave" in New York she was said to be texting relentlessly. The woman asked her to stop, she reportedly responded, it's for business, enslaver. Upon hearing the news, the founder of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema tweeted "until she apologizes to movie fans, Madonna is banned from watching movies at Drafthouse." The material girl has not responded.

That was one of the screenings. I was supposed to go to that screening. I missed it. I would be right there to see all the drama.